Trade Forecast Flip🚢

Welcome Tuesday briefing on Ecommerce ecosystem! Global trade is rebounding even as warnings of a slowdown loom, while robotics and AI reshape shopping and logistics.

+ 10 other handpicked news from the last week you need to know 🔥

LET’S ENTER THE MAZE!
- Artur Stańczuk, MarketMaze Founder

The Briefing: The World Trade Organization has upgraded its 2025 merchandise trade outlook to 2.4%, up from April’s modest 0.9% projection, after a surge in early-year volumes and a 20% spike in semiconductor and server sales. Yet the WTO warns that growth could tumble to 0.5% in 2026 as tariff threats and inventory overhangs drag on momentum.

The details:

Why it matters: A rebound in trade signals consumer resilience, but the looming slowdown underscores how exposed commerce is to elections and protectionism. Businesses and investors should watch AI‑driven sectors (nearly half of all growth came from chips and servers) while preparing for a tougher 2026.

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The Briefing: DoorDash has built its own autonomous courier. Dubbed Dot, the pint‑sized robot is one‑tenth the size of a car, cruises at up to 20 mph and will test deliveries in Arizona before rolling out more widely.

The details:

Why it matters: With labour costs rising, platforms are racing to automate the last mile. If Dot proves reliable and cost‑effective, it could shift expectations for urban delivery and force competitors to rethink their own logistics strategies.

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🇺🇸 Google expands virtual try‑on. Google’s AI shopping tool now serves Australia, Canada and Japan and introduces shoe try‑on; users can upload full‑length photos and even create outfit videos via the Doppl app.

🇩🇪 AI Mode launches in DACH. Google rolled out its KI‑Modus across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and 40+ other nations, enabling multimodal queries, deeper exploration and longer follow‑up questions.

🇺🇸 Snapchat partners WooCommerce. A new integration lets WooCommerce merchants sync catalogs with Snapchat’s ad platform, deploy tracking pixels in one click and tap an audience that’s far more likely to buy after seeing a Snap ad.

🇺🇸 Meta debuts Business AI. Meta introduced a customizable agent that answers questions inside ads and on websites using a brand’s own content and catalog, plus virtual try‑on and generative art tools.

🇺🇸 OpenAI introduces AgentKit. OpenAI’s new toolkit offers a drag‑and‑drop builder, connector registry and chat tools to help developers spin up AI agents quickly with automated prompt tuning and safety guardrails.

🇮🇳 India pilots AI shopping. NPCI and Razorpay have begun trials letting consumers shop via ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude chatbots, with UPI payments and BigBasket and Vi as launch merchants.

🇬🇧 Asos launches video shopping. Asos Live blends creator‑led livestreams and replays with instant checkout inside the app, drawing hundreds of thousands of views and boosting conversion.

🇺🇸 Square adds AI voice ordering. Square’s POS now handles phone orders via an AI voice assistant and supports Bitcoin payments, letting merchants convert up to half of daily takings into crypto with no fees for a year.

🇬🇧 Amazon DSP reaches 80 % of UK homes. Amazon’s ad platform now covers eight in ten UK households, and interactive video ads deliver a 30 % lift in awareness and 36 % lift in orders.

🇺🇸 Squarespace partners Perplexity. Squarespace will host sites for Perplexity’s Comet AI browser, allowing users to go from research to a finished web presence with AI‑assisted design.

🇺🇸 DoorDash taps Serve for LA bots. DoorDash signed a multi‑year deal to deploy Serve Robotics’ sidewalk bots in Los Angeles, rounding out its multi‑modal network and freeing couriers for complex orders.

🇯🇵 Seven‑Eleven plans AI humanoids. Seven‑Eleven Japan and Telexistence aim to roll out Astra, a generative AI humanoid, across 20 000 stores by 2029 to tackle labour shortages.

🇩🇪 Zalando workers strike. Workers at Zalando’s Erfurt logistics centre walked out demanding regional collective agreements that would raise wages more than 10 % and improve benefits.

🇵🇱 Allegro and Wolt align. Allegro Smart! members now get a year of Wolt+ free, reflecting Poland’s surge in online shopping and the boom in subscription-based delivery.

🇮🇪 Deliveroo adds retail in Ireland. Deliveroo launched an on‑demand shopping category in four Irish cities, promising 20‑minute delivery on goods from perfumes to DIY supplies.

🇺🇸 Instacart plugs data into TikTok. Instacart is the first retail media network to feed its data into TikTok Ads Manager, giving brands end‑to‑end targeting and measurement on the platform.

🇺🇸 Meituan launches Peppr POS in U.S.. China’s Meituan entered the U.S. by offering Peppr, a modular POS and marketing system for restaurants, instead of food delivery.

🇸🇪 PostNord pushes lockers. PostNord says lockers thrive only when highlighted during checkout; locker use already hits 37 % in Finland and most Nordic shoppers want to pick their own pickup spot.

🇺🇸 Amazon adds holiday surcharges. Amazon Shipping will levy seasonal fees from Oct. 26 2025 to Jan. 17 2026, with per‑package surcharges up to $0.60 and extra‑heavy packages costing $540 to support peak operations.

🇸🇪 Ingka buys AI logistics firm Locus. Ikea parent Ingka Group bought U.S. startup Locus to integrate AI route planning, real‑time tracking and capacity optimisation into home delivery.

🇧🇪 Belgium plans parcel fee. Belgium may impose a €2 levy on parcels from outside the EU to raise revenue and level the playing field, though industry groups urge a broader EU approach.

🇵🇱 InPost to launch AI shopping. InPost will debut an AI‑powered shopping platform on Jan. 1 2026 that analyses customer data to recommend products and deliver them cheaply to lockers, challenging Allegro.

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY

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See you next time in the maze!
MarketMaze team